Lost AstronautAlicia Framis, 2009, 34'31''

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It is already more than 40 years ago that the first man set foot on the moon. Since that date, not one female astronaut or cosmonaut has been able to follow in his footsteps. What would happen if the first inhabitant of the moon were a woman? Or, at least, the next visitor there?

Alicia Framis' long performance and installation Lost Astronaut addresses this question. During the Performa 09 festival in New York, she founded a temporary organization, the Moon Society, manned by her own alter ego. As an ironic protagonist, clad in a space suit, she investigated the feasibility of a colony on the moon. With this action, Framis placed a female perspective against the militarist and political agenda of international space programs.

In November 2009, Framis wen… onto the streets of New York City, in order to claim woman's presence on the moon. For 20 days, she followed instructions issued by 20 renowned artists and writers. Her public performances in the city were documented in the Lost Astronaut video.

The guidelines – by a.o. Brian Keith Jackson, Michael Schulman, Angie Kiefer, Marina Abramovic and Rita McBride – were precise and often specifically dictated Framis hour-by-hour actions. The astronaut was instructed how to have breakfast, where to go, how to behave and how to interact with people. She went to stations, libraries and into the nightlife. Often, serendipity was invoked by sending Framis to unknown locations. The artists' and writers' instructions can be read like a hilarious scenario for a lost futurist. Under this humorous surface lie essential questions about the conditions of a livable society in an alien environment. Poetry, parody and architectural visions of the future merge effortlessly.
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